Update: Saskatoon taxpayers get first look at preliminary budget

Saskatoon taxpayers got their first look at the city’s preliminary budget.
 
Administration presented the document to the new city council at a special meeting Monday afternoon.
 
Under pressure to release numbers ahead of the Oct. 26 election, administration put out an update in September suggesting a 3.89 per cent tax increase to cover a revenue shortfall of about $7.9 million.
 
The document presented Monday came in quite close to the September estimate.
 
Overall, administration is asking council to approve a tax increase of 3.97 per cent. That’s equivalent to another $67.55 per year for an average homeowner.
 
Most of the proposed increase comes due to dedicated levies for road repair and snow and ice removal.
 
A 3.97 per cent tax increase would generate an additional $8.06 million for the city. Of that, $3.91 million would go towards the dedicated road levy, $1.12 million would be earmarked for improvements to the snow and ice program and the remaining $3.03 million would cover costs related to inflation and growth.
 
The preliminary budget doesn’t contain any costs from the Saskatoon Police Service related to growth, including any requests for new officers. Those will be ironed out during Chief Clive Weighill’s budget presentation to the new Saskatoon Board of Police Commissioners later in November.
 
With the levies for roads and snow removed from the equation, administration is asking for an additional 1.49 per cent in taxes. That  falls just shy of inflation, estimated at 1.6 per cent.
 
2017 is the last budget year for the road levy, which began in the 2014 budget year.
 
The dedicated levy for snow and ice removal of 0.55 per cent per year began in the 2016 budget year. It’s meant to gradually build up funds that could potentially cover a full clear of accumulated snow on city roads once per year. Last year, council opted to use the funds to improve snow removal around schools.

Last year’s tax increase came in at 3.96 per cent. Over the last four years the average tax increase has been 5.4 per cent.